Category Archives: Blogging

I just realized that I started this book blog 10 years ago! 10. Wow. I even found my inaugural post:

Oh, I had such lofty goals. 100 books in one year. I think I only accomplished that once in the lifetime of this site. I did get really close in 2008 though. 90 books. Not too shabby.

This blog has been such a wonderful outlet for me to ramble on about the books in my life, joining reading challenges and realizing just how large the reading community really is. It makes my little librarian heart swell with joy.

Its interesting scanning through my old posts, seeing the evolution of my reading tastes from year to year. I definitely am not monogamous with any single genre. I started with the classics, delved into sci-fi and fantasy, discovered teen lit, (Oh Gossip Girl…I still love you and your TV show counterpart). I’m trying to figure out just when exactly this turned into an ALL THINGS FRENCH blog. I think 2011 after I came back from Paris.

I’m not the best at updating this blog, but to have lasted a good, albeit somewhat spotty, 10 years. Maybe its time I give it some love and try to keep up with my updates again.

I discovered a love for audiobooks in 2015 and its been such a game-changer for me. I’m able to keep up with more stories and stay entertained on my commutes around town. I’ve even gotten my 5 year old hooked on audiobooks. We’re listening to the Mouse and the Motorcycle right now. Its such a joy to share the classics of my childhood with him in this way. I’m not sure he could sit still at home with me reading such a lengthy book without pictures. But in the car, he’s totally entranced by the tale.

Well, what is a blog post without lists? Lets see how well I can sum my last 10 years with this blog with some of my favorite discoveries.

Self-Help books. I probably shouldn’t admit this to the wide world of the Internet, but I love self-help books. I love their optimism, their encouraging voices, their checklists, charts and lists of To-do’s that I never, ever do. There is something special about these helping hands on the bookshelves.

Real Housewives Style Literature. A good guilty pleasure should be something fun, frivolous and just plain extraordinary. I would classify The Last Mrs. Parrish, Gossip Girl, and even The Swans of 5th Avenue in this category. I don’t watch The Real Housewives of any city. But I still appreciate a retreat into the completely ridiculous every now and then.

Social Science. I love studies. I love lives. I love studies about the lives of people. I love social science because I’m constantly trying to figure out how our world works and why people do the things they do. Things that I can relate to, things that I absolutely cannot understand.

November has been a busy month for me. Lots of random selections too I might add. 10 books completed in total. I’ve been busy reading a slew of children’s books for my blog @ Librarians Crossing (shameless plug, I know). Sometimes a person just needs a good picture book as a reminder for why reading is fun.

At least this month I am not behind or ahead on my reviews. What I’ve read is basically what you’ve seen, minus 1 title. Go me!

The city of Yerevan was chosen for the quality and variety of its programme, which is “very detailed, realistic and rooted in the social fabric of the city, focused on the universal and involving all the stakeholders involved in the book industry”, according to the members of the selection committee.

“I congratulate the city of Yerevan, which has presented a particularly interesting programme with many different themes, including the freedom of expression, as well as several activities for children, who will be the readers and authors of tomorrow”, said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. “Mobilizing the entire world of books and reading, from authors to printers and publishers, will undoubtedly help to make the Yerevan programme a major success, with a sustainable impact,” she added.

Every year, UNESCO and the three major international professional organizations from the world of books – the International Publishers Association (IPA), the International Booksellers Federation (IBF) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) – designate a city as World Book Capital for one year, between two consecutive celebrations of World Book and Copyright Day (23 April). This initiative is a collaborative effort between representatives of the main stakeholders in the book industry, as well as a commitment by cities to promote books and reading.

Successful entrepreneur and cartoonist Hugh McLeod writes this simple guide for escaping the cubicle claustrophobia of everyday work and promoting the branching out and making a success out of home-grown interests, hobbies and activities.

Had this not been a selection for my book club, I would probably not have picked up this book. I’m not really not the target audience for Evil Plans. I believe the target audience is anyone working in a stereotypical rat-race workforce and hates their current job. The audience is someone needing a little encouragement and nod towards starting their own company. The audience also includes fans of McLeod’s cartoons and website gapingvoid.com. I didn’t really find much useful information in this book, and many of McLeod’s work ethics and habit differ sharply from my own. I don’t like to work on 10 individual projects at a time, I like to work on 2 maybe 3, all of which are related and overlap.

Although McLeod offers some clever tips and includes a number of his own illustrations throughout the book, I just found this book to be lacking in applicable advice. McLeod wrote over 2 dozen chapters, each of which is roughly 1 – 5 pages. Short and full of quips and personal anecdotes, I think current fans of McLeod and his work will get a real kick out of this book. For me, I didn’t know his website or his work, so I never really understood why I should care.

Despite my reservations about the book, I have been reading his blog/website GapingVoid and I find myself really enjoying his writing. I think maybe because it’s not as condensed and bullet-pointy as the book? He’s an active member of the art community and is the CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.

Having escaped a life of crime and conning, fifteen year old Katerina Bishop’s final goodbye to the “family business” was to scam her way into one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country. At the school only a short while, Kat learns that leaving her former life is harder than she’d thought, especially when she’s framed for a school prank that has her expelled from the Colgan School. Reunited with her friend and co-conspirator, Hale, Kat learns that her con-man father has fallen into big trouble, accused of stealing a set of portraits only a master thief could pull off. Now Kat has two weeks to retrieve the paintings and save her father, putting together a crew of her own and creating her own little heist society.

First, I want to say that Angela Dawe is an amazing reader for this audio book. Her youthful voice gave life to the characters, and she was able to alter her tone and accent enough to really infuse each character with their own separate personality and voice. Sometimes, all the characters seem to blur together with certain narrators, but Dawe managed to keep them all unique and apart in this Ocean’s Eleven for Teenagers.

I listened to this book on audio, which was a really fun way to get into the story. I think this is an audio book that the whole family can really enjoy during long road-trips. There is a lot of globe-trotting: Paris to London, to Austria to Paris. There is a lot of wealth, and bling and talk of wealth and bling and pretty people to round it out. Despite all the wealth in this book, Kat remained a character that is strong yet vulnerable, insecure, but clever. I found her to be a fantastic lead character, able to put together one of the youngest heist crews to attempt to pull off one of the greatest heist of their generation.

As a teen novel, there is the pre-requisite love triangle, and unrequited love plot-line, as well as the make-up of Kat’s crew. The pretty one (cousin Gabrielle), the dashing billionaire (Hale), the nerdy techie (cousin Simon) the loose cannons (the Bradshaw brothers), and the new addition (Nick).

The story was easy to follow, very quick-paced. The dialogue is sharp, witty, although sometimes the kids sounded much older than their fifteen years. But then again, when you’ve been casing the Louvre at age three, and stealing the crown jewels of Austria at age seven, there isn’t much room to idly chew gum and flip through fashion magazines.

Overall, I found this to be a really enjoyable book, Carter’s writing is witty, youthful and brilliantly composed.

For anyone and everyone living in the Bay Area, Gennifer Choldenko will be making the rounds in the Peninsula. If you’re as much of a fan of her work as I am, definitely try to make it to one of these events.

One of England’s most celebrated (and wordy) authors would be celebrating his 200th’s birthday today.

The Guardian is celebrating this occasion with a really cool interactive Wallchart of Dickens and some of his most famous characters. Miss Havisham is my standout favorite. Who is yours?

She had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about.

The Guardian is working with The Observer to promote a 6-week celebration called Book Season:

The Bookswap mentioned in the quote above is referring to a nation-wide book drop off program that took began last weekend on Saturday. The Guardian acquired 15,000 books from various publishers and authors and will be leaving the books all over the place in parks, restaurants, subway stations, for anyone to pick up and peruse.

Also, check out the Guardian’s Book Power 100 list to see who’s-who’s in the influential world of literacy, publishing, and bookselling. JK Rowling is the #2 most influential person in the book industry, who is number one? The answer might not really surprise you…but it should.

Although lonely and friendless at school, 10-year-old Joss McMillan was looking forward to spending his entire summer with his cousin Henry, his best friend. The night before Joss’s departure, he witnesses the brutal death of his beloved 6-year-old sister at the hands of a vampire. When his slayer-uncle recruits Joss to join the Slayer Society, Joss does not hesitate, ready to avenge his sister’s death. Called to boot camp years later, and 5 year before his 18th birthday, Joss learns to fight his demons, literal, mental and emotional.

This book is like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Supernatural. It’s very action packed and violent, although the violence is not very graphic. At only 13 years of age, Joss goes through a tremendous amount of beatings that are normally reserved for the 18-year-old slayer recruits. His uncle Abraham is the leader of their troupe, and is determined to scare Joss into going back home, believing that Joss’s empathetic nature will lead to his downfall. As he trains, Joss discovers abilities within himself that could make his the strongest and youngest Slayer in history.

Although I haven’t read them, Brewer’s earlier series, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod is an incredibly popular series at the library, especially among boys. I was very excited to find this book in my mailbox and it did not disappoint.

Today is Day 2 of the 4th annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I remember when the first one began in 2008, only 9 months after I first started blogging. Now look at it. Its grown up into a highly anticipated aspect of the blogging community. I’m proud to have seen many of the blogs nominated grow and change over time. Many of the bloggers rightfully deserve these awards for all the time and effort they have put not only into their own blogs, but into the community as a whole.